What happened in Somalia was exactly what Gen Powell feared -- mission creep. We started-out on a humanitarian mission with a sharply focused objective. As time passed the objectives expanded -- mostly under Bush Sr. When Clinton came in his Sec Defense, Les Aspin, continued the expanded initiatives but denied the request from the military for armor in support of the expanded mission. Instead, he relied on foreign forces under UN command. This is the extremely hazardous phenomenon known as a divided command which often results in lots of dead soldiers.

The US forces could not order armored support from the UN forces but instead, had to request them and provide details of the operations and hope that the UN would accede to the requests and do so at a time and disposition of forces useful to the US command. Recall that the US command was composed of extremely motivated, highly trained professional soldiers. They trained with regular US forces who, though not as trained or motivated, were nonetheless among the finest regular army forces in the world. In contrast, the UN forces were poorly equipped, poorly led, and unmotivated. A horrible match-up.

So on paper, Les Aspin was right -- it made sense to rely on the coalition partners since they had the type of armor that our forces needed. Unfortunately, Les Aspin was more attuned to the international political relations than to the lives of the men under his authority. The result was terrible, if somewhat predictable.

One think that came clear in that movie and in interviews that I saw on "The History Channel" was that the American forces were extraordinary men and ferocious soldiers ably led by a cohesive cadre of NCO's and officers. It was not they who were lost the battle in Mogadishu, it was the f**king American politicians. A familiar pattern.

B